Computing devices and other similar devices implemented to send and/or receive data can be interconnected in a wired network or a wireless network to allow the data to be communicated between the devices. Wired networks, such as wide area networks (WANs) and local area networks (LANs) for example, tend to have a high bandwidth and can therefore be configured to communicate digital data at high data rates. One obvious drawback to wired networks is that the range of movement of a device is constrained since the device needs to be physically connected to the network for data exchange. For example, a user of a portable computing device will need to remain near to a wired network junction to maintain a connection to the wired network.
An alternative to wired networks is a wireless network that is configured to support similar data communications but in a more accommodating manner. For example, the user of the portable computing device can move around within a region that is supported by the wireless network without having to be physically connected to the network. A limitation of conventional wireless networks, however, is their relatively low bandwidth which results in a much slower exchange of data than a wired network. Further, conventional wireless networks are implemented with multiple base stations, or access points, that relay communications between wireless-configured devices. These conventional access points have a limited communication range, typically 20 to 200 feet, and a wireless network requires a large number of these access points to cover and provide a communication link over a large area.
Many conventional wireless communication systems and networks implement omni-directional antennas to transmit data packets to a client device and receive data packets from or via an access point. With a standard wireless LAN, for example, a transmission is communicated equally in all directions from an omni-directional antenna, or point of emanation. Receiving devices located within range and positioned at any angle with respect to the emanating point can receive the wireless transmission.
However, standard omni-directional wireless LANs or omni-directional wireless wide area networks (WANs) have drawbacks and limitations. For example, transmission range is limited and electromagnetic interference associated with transmissions is unmanaged and can interfere with or otherwise restrict the use of other communicating devices that operate in the same frequency band within the transmission coverage area. Furthermore, inefficiencies and data corruption can occur if two or more centralized points of emanation are positioned proximate to have overlapping coverage areas.